Well, I was hoping I wouldn't have to do this, but It's looking like "I can't get no - satisfaction".
Bought a ZAMP helmet in Feb '17. HJC stopped making the lid that i liked and the ZAMP had a lot of neat features and was pretty light. Bought it from Apex Performance in SC - great guys to deal with.
Last race weekend I had trouble keeping the shield up when I wanted it up - and I ran out of tear-offs with none available at the trackside store. No biggie - I had a yellow shield in the bag with a couple of tear-offs on it never used.
When I removed the right post from the helmet I found the shield cracked 3/4 of the way through - this after only six weekends of use. What was worse was that in taking the left post out it galled in place - started to tighten up so I reversed it but it locked solid about halfway out. Aluminum post in a steel insert. This is at 8PM on Saturday night.
So, having no clear options other than to try and beg a helmet from someone two groups before or two groups after, I made an attempt to fix the thing. Drilled the head off the post first and got the shield out of the way. Then i buzzed the remaining post down as far as I could and center drilled it hoping to pick the remaining aluminum threads out with a dental pick - no joy, they were really welded in there.
Then I drilled the hole out a tad more and tried to tap the insert for a helical, but the insert started turning in the helmet. I ended up going up in 1/64 steps to get it to 5/16, put a long bolt through from the inside with a stack of washers and a nylock to fashion a post. The bolt head was flush with the EPS in the liner and covered by the inner liner. Not the most advisable thing to do, but hey, I'm sure folks have done worse.
When I got back I contacted ZAMP and asked for a warranty repair or replacement. To my surprise they refused - contending that drilling through the insert was an "unauthorized modification", and saying no sanctioning body would let me use it now. Well, no **** sherlock?
Mind you, the shell is unharmed, The insert still in place, and we are talking a 1/2" spot in the EPS that could be plugged. Never mind that people drill the damn things all the time for radios, water setups, air tubes and before SA 2010 - the HANS posts.
The guy I'm dealing with is Kyle Keenan, some B-spec guy from the northwest, and trying to be logical with this guy is impossible.
First, he told me I must have cross-threaded or overtightened the post - yet it was as I received it. Honestly, how do you cross-thread or over tighten a post anyway - the damn things are designed to make it hard to put a lot of torque on them with a wide and shallow slot in aluminum. They seem to be signed with using a quarter for a screwdriver.
I asked what he would have done - which he wouldn't answer but said I should have called them first. Now mind you it was 8PM on a Saturday and he didn't elaborate on just what i would have been told to do IF I could have reached someone....
He also declined to elaborate on how they would have repaired it had I skipped my race and sent the helmet back. To set a new insert they would have had to grind the outer rim off and punch the inner piece out of the way before they could place a new insert - creating the same hole I did. Just like drilling out a rivet.
My position is that if the EPS can't be repaired any problem like I encountered scraps the helmet, and they should replace it under the warranty. The best they offered me was 50% off another of their helmets. Mine still had 80% of the life left. I probably take it out in the desert and shoot it up. Maybe make a you tube video of it......
You get what you pay for is the moral of the story. This item is worth what - maybe $200 to them wholesale? Hoping to speak to his boss about it and if I get a reasonable outcome I'll delete this post.